Page 60 of Wicked Brutal

The doorbell rings, and he nearly launches out of his chair. “ALLY!” He runs.

Mom catches the back of his shirt before he makes it two steps. “Walk.”

“But it’s Ally.”

“And she’ll remain Ally for the four additional seconds it takes you to reach the door without cracking your skull open.”

He sighs with the burden of being oppressed. “Fine.” Then he speed-walks out of the room.

I look at Mom. “That was impressive.”

“I’ve been a mother longer than you’ve been a leprechaun engineer.”

I follow Tobias into the front hall. He already has the door open, and Ally barely gets one foot inside before he throws himself at her. “Ally! Walter and me made a trap, but his first design was bad.”

Her eyes immediately find mine over Tobias’s head. I smile. She smiles back. Small. Private. Then she looks down at her brother. “You’ve been here an hour and you’re already insulting the host?”

“Walter said it was fair.”

Dad calls from the dining room, “It was.”

Ally laughs. Fuck, I love that sound. She shuts the door, and Tobias grabs her hand. “Come see.”

“Okay, okay.”

He pulls her toward the dining room, and she passes close enough to me that her fingers brush mine. Barely anything. Still enough. “Hi,” she murmurs.

“Hi.”

Tobias looks back. “Come on.”

“We’re coming.”

He drags her inside. Mom smiles when she sees her. “Hi, sweetheart.”

“Hi. Thank you for taking him. Mom texted me after school. I didn’t even know she’d called you.”

“It wasn’t a problem.”

“She said something came up.”

“That’s all she told me too.” Ally’s eyes move to Mom’s, and there’s a pause. Mom doesn’t dance around it. “She asked me not to tell your father.”

Ally goes still. “She did?”

“Yes.”

“What exactly did she say?”

I almost smile. Same question I asked. Mom notices too — her eyes flick briefly toward me. “That Roman didn’t need to know because it was only an hour.”

Ally looks toward Tobias, who’s explaining something to Dad again. “That’s weird.” Ally thinks about it. “She doesn’t do things Dad doesn’t know about.”

Mom leans against the table. “Has she ever called someone else to watch Tobias?”

“Not without telling him.”

“Maybe she didn’t have a choice today,” I say.